John Logan to pen Jersey Boys movie

Have we got a story for you. Or at least Hugo scribe John Logan has. A few months ago, we reported that The Departed producer Graham King was preparing an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys, based on the life and songs of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Now THR reports that John Logan has been hired to write the screenplay for the adaptation.

In addition to the acclaimed script for Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, set to scoop a number of awards in the coming season, Logan is also behind Gladiator, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Rango, Coriolanus and is co-writing the James Bond film Skyfall for Sam Mendes and Lincoln for Steven Spielberg. This is a major coup for GK Films, and Jersey Boys will see him collaborate once again with the Hugo production team of Graham King and Tim Headington.

Logan’s presence is consistent with the direction King said the adaptation of the jukebox musical was going. Back in November, he said: “When you transform a stage play to the big screen, it’s never that easy because, obviously, the differences of telling the story and the characters. This one, again—it’s such a, like you say, hugely popular show. And there’s much more to these guys’ lives then, obviously, what’s in the show. So it’s bringing that out, and getting all the resource material together to make a movie based on Jersey Boys. The DNA is going to be the same. The DNA of the movie is going to be the same. But you’ve gotta get drama within those characters”.

Jersey Boys opened on Broadway in 2005, and won four Tony Awards including Best Musical at the 2006 ceremony. It has also had a US tour, along with productions at London’s West End, Las Vegas, Chicago, Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney and Philadelphia. With music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, the hits include “Sherry”, “Walk Like a Man”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, ”December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” and Valli’s solo “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”.

The original Broadway production was written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Four Seasons keyboardist Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe.